Timing of Kejriwal’s arrest hints at bad faith, eagerness to deny him freedom
The arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal by the CBI in the Delhi excise policy corruption case is unwarranted and appears tainted by bad faith. It was effected just before the Supreme Court of India was due to hear an appeal against a Delhi High Court order that had stayed the bail granted to him by a lower court in a money-laundering case related to the same allegation. The High Court had stalled his release on a plea by the Enforcement Directorate, but reserved its detailed order. The Supreme Court had deferred its hearing to June 26 to await the outcome. However, the High Court, by a detailed order, formalized the stay on the grant of bail. On June 26 morning, the CBI effected his formal arrest and sought his custody for interrogation in a CBI court. It is quite strange that it decided on this particular day and circumstance to formally arrest someone who has been in custody since March 21, save for a brief interlude during which he was granted interim bail. It is difficult to escape the conclusion that the sole purpose was to deny him the possibility of freedom, if the Court had restored the bail order.
The allegation that Mr. Kejriwal was a beneficiary as well as a prime mover behind the controversial excise policy that allegedly procured windfall profits for favored liquor manufacturers is quite serious. However, the investigation has been going on for nearly two years, and suspects have been arrested from time to time. The evidence largely consists of statements made by accused persons who were subsequently granted pardon and made approvers. In these circumstances, the vacation judge who granted bail in the money-laundering case came to a reasonable conclusion that someone cannot be indefinitely incarcerated in the hope that a money trail and direct evidence would soon emerge to justify the action. Unfortunately, the High Court concluded that this verdict was arrived at without considering the entire material available and without affording sufficient opportunity to the prosecution. The picture of an accused having to go from the lowest to the highest court for bail and facing favorable and adverse orders alternately reflects poorly on a system that has been weaponized by the current regime to target political opponents. A truly impartial agency should not rush to arrest anyone, leave alone those holding high political office, but instead approach the trial court with a strong and well-documented case, and leave it to the courts to decide on the guilt or innocence of the accused. Mr. Kejriwal, on his part, should have resigned immediately on arrest to avoid the perception he could influence witnesses or tamper with the evidence.
(The Hindu)
Beijing (TIP)- The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday, March 7, said it has busted major human trafficking networks operating across India that targeted young people with promises of lucrative jobs abroad, including in Russia and Ukraine, but sent them off to people who then forced them to fight on the front lines of the war between those countries. The agency conducted searches at 13 locations in Delhi, Thiruvananthapuram, Mumbai, Ambala, Chandigarh, Madurai and Chennai. It identified at least 35 instances of victims sent abroad by the alleged traffickers.
“These traffickers have been operating as an organised network and were luring Indian nationals through social media channels like YouTube etc, and also through their local contacts or agents for highly paid jobs in Russia,” a CBI spokesperson said. “Thereafter, the trafficked Indian nationals were trained in combat roles and deployed at front bases in the Russia-Ukraine war zone against their wishes, thus putting their lives in grave danger.”
Some victims were grievously injured in the war zone, the spokesperson said.
At least two Indian nationals are known to have been killed while serving with the Russian army. The Indian embassy in Moscow confirmed the death of Indian national Mohammed Asfan in a post on X on March 6. The 30-year-old from Hyderabad travelled to Russia late last year and reports have said he was seriously injured along with two other Indians in hostilities in a conflict zone last month.
Earlier, 23-year-old Hemal Ashwinbhai Mangukiya, a resident of Surat in Gujarat, was killed in a Ukrainian air strike while serving as a “security helper” with the Russian Army at Donetsk, a part of Ukraine occupied by Russia. Mangukiya travelled to Russia last December.
CBI registered a case on Wednesday against private visa consultancy firms, agents and others engaged in trafficking Indians to Russia under the guise of employment, the spokesperson said. “So far around 35 instances of victims sent abroad have been established. The identity of more trafficking victims are also being established. Investigation is continuing.”
Four accused consultancies or agents were named: 24×7 RAS Overseas Foundation and its director Suyash Mukut; OSD Bros Travels and Visa Services Pvt Ltd. and its director Rakesh Pandey; Adventure Visa Services Pvt Ltd and its director Manjeet Singh; and Baba Vlogs Overseas Recruitment Solutions Pvt Ltd. and its director Faisal Abdul Mutalib Khan, also known as Baba. Cash amounting to over ?50 lakh, incriminating documents, electronics and CCTV footage were recovered during Thursday’s raids, the spokesperson said.
The agency appealed to the public not to fall for false job promises from dubious recruitment agencies and agents. Indian authorities have stepped up efforts to bring back all Indians serving with the Russian military, though the actual number remains unclear, with some reports suggesting it could be around 100. Last month, India’s external affairs ministry confirmed that 20 Indian nationals serving with the Russian military had approached the Indian mission in Moscow seeking help with their discharge, and several were discharged after Indian authorities took up their cases in Moscow and New Delhi.
The least resilient among the INDIA members are in danger of disappearing from the political scene
“PM Modi’s most urgent task is to lift millions of his countrymen from the poverty in which they are mired. The affluent are certainly much better off since 2014. The stock market is booming. Those who have invested in stocks will become even richer if he is re-elected in 2024. The freebies now given away to the rural poor will eventually have to be stopped. The youth of those poor households, belonging mainly to the lower castes, must be equipped with skills to enable them to fend for themselves. Industrialists and entrepreneurs, who have prospered in the last 10 years, should be motivated to enter less-profitable segments of the economy so that jobs are created for our unemployed youth.”
By Julio Ribeiro
I write this piece as a member of a minority community — just 2 per cent of the country’s population. In a ‘first past the post’ system of electing people’s representatives, the BJP has swept the Assembly polls in the Hindi heartland. The Congress lost the tribal and women’s votes. The shift in votes from the Congress to the BJP catapulted the latter to power in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.
‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas’ needs to be put into practice instead of being merely parroted every now and then.
The difference in the overall vote share of the BJP and the Congress was roughly 2 percentage points in Rajasthan and 4 in Chhattisgarh. It was 8 percentage points in Madhya Pradesh, where the winner garnered 48 per cent of the votes as against 40 per cent by the Congress.
It was a resounding victory for the BJP and Modi in particular. Not even his bitterest critic can say that he is not the most popular and charismatic of all political leaders in the country. It looks certain that he will be elected for a third term. The Hindi heartland is with him and that should tilt the scales in his favor. The South is not with him, but the West is his for the taking. What is in store for the country after the 2024 Lok Sabha elections? In the past decade, India has been divided on communal lines. The consolidation of the Hindu vote was what the Hindutva forces strived for. It succeeded to the extent of ensuring the BJP’s poll victories. Muslims and Christians together make up just 16 per cent of the population. The Sikhs account for less than 2 per cent.
After the 2024 polls, the forward castes in the Hindu fold will be the chosen ones, like the Christian Brahmins and Kshatriyas were in Goa during the Portuguese rule. The BJP under Modi, influenced by the RSS, will placate the OBCs and the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes, counting them within the 80 per cent whose pride in being Hindu has to be ‘created’.
The Muslims were in the doghouse in Modi’s first two terms. Beef-related lynchings, ‘love jihad’ accusations and the fear generated by the CAA-related NRC had stifled their quest for equality as citizens of India. Now, I envisage that they and the Christians, who are next in line on the extremists’ hit list, will have to adjust to second-class citizenship like Hindus and Christians in Pakistan have done in that religion-influenced country.
Delivering his victory speech at the BJP’s headquarters in Delhi, PM Modi mentioned ‘appeasement’, besides corruption and dynastic politics, as the evils that he has been fighting. I do not know what he means by ‘appeasement’. If he is referring to the Muslims, it is only the mullahs who were appeased by the Congress, and that too in religious matters. That is not the mandate of a democratically elected government. Muslims should be ‘appeased’ like all poor communities, such as the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes, in terms of education and healthcare. Religious issues should be sorted out by the community itself or by the courts.
Extremist elements in the Hindutva camp have consistently railed against the Muslim minority. There have even been calls to exterminate Muslims and boycott their traders selling vegetables and fruits in Hindu localities. Modi should rein in these extremists by ordering penal action against them as ordained by law. He hesitates to do that for fear of losing their support. They, in turn, misinterpret this silence as tacit approval.
PM Modi’s most urgent task is to lift millions of his countrymen from the poverty in which they are mired. The affluent are certainly much better off since 2014. The stock market is booming. Those who have invested in stocks will become even richer if he is re-elected in 2024. The freebies now given away to the rural poor will eventually have to be stopped. The youth of those poor households, belonging mainly to the lower castes, must be equipped with skills to enable them to fend for themselves. Industrialists and entrepreneurs, who have prospered in the last 10 years, should be motivated to enter less-profitable segments of the economy so that jobs are created for our unemployed youth.
The possible re-election of Modi and the BJP in 2024 will consolidate the right-wing economic trend in the country. All left-of-center parties, like the Congress, TMC and the AAP, should come together to form an effective Opposition. If they fail to do so, the least resilient among the INDIA members are in danger of disappearing from the political scene. Many leaders of those parties, such as Arvind Kejriwal, will find themselves targeted by the ED, the CBI and other Central agencies with ruthless precision just before the elections.
Nearly a century ago, writer-philosopher Aldous Huxley, in his futuristic work Brave New World (1932), prophesied: “By means of ever more effective methods of mind manipulation, the democracies will change their nature; the quaint old forms — elections, parliaments, Supreme Courts and all the rest — will remain. The underlying substance will be a new kind of non-violent totalitarianism. Democracy and freedom will be the theme of every broadcast and editorial… Meanwhile, the ruling oligarchy and its highly trained elite of soldiers, policemen, thought-manufacturers and mind-manipulators will quietly run the show as they see fit.” Does that ring a bell? An Opposition-mukt democracy is no democracy.
PM Modi has often stated: “India is the mother of democracy.” If he really believes what he says, we, members of the minority in our own land, will be reassured if ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas’ is put into actual operation instead of being merely parroted every now and then.
(The author is a highly decorated Indian Police Service (IPS) Officer and a former governor)
New Delhi/Mumbai (TIP)- The NCB’s inquiry team has alleged that its former zonal director Sameer Wankhede abused his position while probing the drugs-on-cruise case involving Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan. The NCB’s findings have been taken on record as part of the CBI’s FIR against Wankhede and three other NCB officials, who initially investigated the case.
The NCB has found several alleged service rule violations by Wankhede, including misreporting of foreign travel expenses and dealings in luxury watches. The inquiry team, in its report, has found irregularities against Indian Revenue Services officer Wankhede and his team on two counts — alleged irregularities in the conduct of the drugs-on-cruise raids and violations under the Central Civil Services (CCS) Rules.
Wankhede has, however, denied the allegations. He had approached the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) and recently the Bombay High Court to quash the CBI FIR against him, saying the SET chief — NCB Deputy Director General Gyaneshwar Singh — was “acting as judge of his own cause and conduct” as he was his reporting boss during the investigation of the case.
Meanwhile, Wankhede, accused of demanding bribe from Shah Rukh Khan for not implicating his son, has claimed in his petition that the superstar praised the officer’s “integrity” and pleaded with him to be kind to Aryan.
As per Wankhede’s petition before the Bombay High Court seeking to quash the FIR registered against him by the CBI for bribery, Khan deplored the political involvement in the case. As per the transcript provided in the petition, in one of the messages, the actor said, “God bless you. I have to come personally whenever you say and give a hug to you. Let me please know whenever it’s convenient for you. Really, I have always had the highest regard for your uprightness and now it has increased manifolds. Big respect.” “Please show some kindness … I can only plead and beg you as a father. Please,” the superstar said in another chat, as per the petition.
It is not clear what offences punishable by law Sisodia is being charged with
“Even if kickbacks are accepted and then credited to the party’s coffers, an offence would be made out under the Prevention of Corruption Act. It may not be easy to garner the evidence to prove the receipt of monies but adequate evidence to pin moral culpability must be disclosed to the public before tarring Sisodia with the accusing brush. People in our country forgive even those who have fattened themselves on corrupt practices. They will forgive Sisodia also even if the money has not gone to his personal account but to the party. His reputation, however, will then be tainted with a small stain on a white shirt.”
By Julio Ribeiro
Manish Sisodia, Delhi’s former Deputy CM, is presently in judicial custody after being arrested by the CBI. Narendra Modi and Amit Shah will breathe a little easy now! Sisodia’s popularity with the poorer population of Delhi surpassed Modi’s popularity with the affluent. With Sisodia out of commission, the AAP machine in Delhi will slow down or that, it appears, is the intent!
To a neutral observer, it appears that the intent of the government is to rob the man and his party of any halo of respectability he or the party may be sporting.
The Kejriwal government had concentrated on education and healthcare, the two subjects any government, either at the Centre or in the states, should pay particular heed to. It had done very well in both spheres, especially in education. That subject was handled by Sisodia. But the Rhodes scholar now in the AAP think tank, Atishi Marlena, will take care of that now.
Instead of neutralizing those whose extraordinary talents and good work keep the AAP ahead of its political competitors, Modi and Shah should advise the double-engine governments in BJP-ruled states to emulate AAP’s achievements. Future generations of voters will surely discard such divisive politics. Revolutions in education and healthcare will appeal to all generations.
I have always suspected that successive governments, starting with the Congress which was in power for decades after Independence, may not have wanted the masses to be fully literate. The uneducated blindly follow what is told to them by those with the ‘gift of the gab’. Literate individuals may not be really educated but they listen to news on the television and many of them decide to form her or his own opinion on important issues. Politicians cannot take their support for granted. Religion and caste will remain factors to contend with but votes cast without considering the pros and cons will reduce when people can read and write.
It is not clear, to me at least, what offences punishable by law Sisodia is being charged with. An accused not cooperating with the police is certainly not an offence under any law. The police and the courts can draw an inference from the accused’s silence or refusal to answer questions but cannot force him to admit something that could later implicate him in an offence.
Another complaint against Sisodia is that he was in the habit of using multiple phones at any one time and that he had obliterated call data. Again, inferences can be drawn from such practices but where is it laid down in law that one cannot use more than one phone at one time and that a record of calls needs to be kept?
To a neutral observer, it appears that the sole intent of the government is to rob the man and his party of any halo of respectability he or the party may presently be sporting. To that end, the investigative agencies have been sent on a ‘fishing’ expedition that is not going to end till some fish, even a tiny one, is finally and firmly in the net.
Investigative journalists are adept at ferreting out the truth. They manage to get hold of the remand applications that usually disclose the grounds for asking the court to give a few days of remand to force the truth out of the arrested individual. An insight into the remand application has not been established in Sisodia’s case. The public has not yet learnt of the grounds for his arrest!
What the people have been told is that Sisodia, the man they admire and even love, is involved in a massive scam involving a hundred crores! As Excise Minister, he took decisions on his own without involving the Council of Ministers and the Lt Governor in the decision-making process. He allegedly tweaked the policy to benefit a group of licensees known to the investigators as the ‘South Group’ in which the daughter of Telangana CM K Chandrashekar Rao and an MP representing that state were members.
The profit allowed to be earned by the group had been increased from 5% to 12%. This was sanctioned by Sisodia, who was asked to explain this decision but was unable to give a satisfactory explanation, according to the media.
Lobbying for relaxations or workable policies is a common feature of working life in the Mantralayas, the seats of state governments. It was even more prevalent in the ministries of the Central government till the Modi administration discouraged the lobbyists. It is also true that a group like the Adanis could not have achieved success (now notoriety) without approaches to the ultimate power.
Even if Sisodia had met someone from the South Group, that in itself would not inculpate him in a crime unless it is proved that he benefited personally from the interaction. The raids on his office, his home, his bank and the bank locker have drawn a blank.
The party may have received kickbacks. It is a given that all political parties need money to run their business. The BJP at the Centre has electoral bonds, but in Karnataka, for instance, some ministers in the BJP government have been accused by contractors of demanding 40% cuts from contracts instead of the standard 15% (the figure quoted in the Mumbai MC is less, only 10%, and since the money is paid to the corporators, all parties benefit. Parties with a greater number of corporators benefit more!). The allegations by contractors against BJP leaders in Karnataka have been reinforced lately with the arrest of one of its prominent legislators and the recovery of crores of rupees from the home of his son.
Even if kickbacks are accepted and then credited to the party’s coffers, an offence would be made out under the Prevention of Corruption Act. It may not be easy to garner the evidence to prove the receipt of monies but adequate evidence to pin moral culpability must be disclosed to the public before tarring Sisodia with the accusing brush. People in our country forgive even those who have fattened themselves on corrupt practices. They will forgive Sisodia also even if the money has not gone to his personal account but to the party. His reputation, however, will then be tainted with a small stain on a white shirt.
(The author is a former governor and a highly decorated retired Indian Police officer)
New Delhi (TIP)- Congress MP Karti Chidambaram reached the CBI headquarters on Thursday, May 26, to join the investigation into an alleged scam pertaining to the issuance of visas to 263 Chinese nationals in 2011 when his father P Chidambaram was the home minister, officials said. A special court had ordered him to join the CBI investigation within 16 hours of his arrival from the UK and Europe, where he had gone with the permission of the Supreme Court and the special court.
The MP returned from his trip on Wednesday, May 25. He arrived at the CBI office on Thursday morning to answer questions related to the case.
Speaking to reporters outside the CBI headquarters, Karti said the case against him was “bogus”, and claimed that he had not facilitated the issuance of visa to any Chinese national.
The case pertains to allegations of Rs 50 lakh being paid as bribe to Karti and his close associate S Bhaskararaman by a top executive of Vedanta group company Talwandi Sabo Power Ltd (TSPL), which was setting up a power plant in Punjab, for re-issuance of project visas for 263 Chinese workers employed there, the CBI FIR said. The agency has already taken Bhaskararaman in custody.
According to the CBI, the work for setting up the power project was being executed by a Chinese company and was running behind schedule. Source: PTI
A fresh case has been filed by the CBI against RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and searches were reported at 16 locations – across several cities – on Friday, May 20, morning. The case is related to alleged corruption linked to recruitments when Lalu Yadav served as the union railways minister, officials said. The 73-year-old leader was recently granted bail in the fifth fodder case against him. This was the last of the corruption cases linked to the fodder scam in which the RJD leader was convicted and had got a bail. Soon after the bail, he was admitted to Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences for treatment, which delayed his return to Patna. On Friday, a huge police deployment was seen amid the CBI searches at residence of Rabri Devi, Lalu’s wife. He was the chief minister of Bihar between 1990 and 1997. Shortly after the searches, RJD leaders launched demonstrations against the action.
“We had pleaded that he has served half of his five-year sentence in this case. Prasad has already served 42 months in jail against the half sentence of 30 months. Though the CBI opposed the petition saying he is still to serve half the sentence in this case, we had submitted trial court’s copy. The court has granted bail,” his lawyer said.
Kolkata (TIP)- The Calcutta High Court on Friday, March 25, ordered a CBI investigation into Birbhum violence that claimed eight lives earlier this week. The court directed an SIT formed by the West Bengal government to hand over case papers and accused persons arrested by it to the central probe agency.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava and Justice R Bharadwaj directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to file a progress report by April 7, the next date of hearing of the matter. The bench said that the CBI probe was being ordered in the interest of justice.
Eight people, including two children, were charred to death in Bogtui village of Bengal’s Birbhum district in the suspected fallout of a TMC panachayat official’s murder.
The bench had suo motu taken up the case of the gruesome incident.
A set of PILs seeking CBI or NIA probe into the incident were also taken up for hearing by the court along with the suo motu petition.
On Thursday, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee visited Bogtui village, where she ensured “speedy justice” to the victims and offered monetary compensation. However, Opposition leaders have accused the Bengal government of a ‘cover up’ and ‘fabrication’.
Congress leader Adhir Chowdhary, whose car was allegedly stopped more than once before reaching Bogtui, alleged that several bodies had disappeared from the site of violence. He said, “She (CM) alleged a big conspiracy behind this incident and that is why she has instructed the police to take strict action. The bodies of two children have gone missing. The CM is trying to suppress the facts.”
Meanwhile, after local residents complained to CM that local Trinamool Congress block president Anarul Hussain had hatched the conspiracy to set the houses ablaze, she ordered the DGP to arrest him. However, Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari tweeted, “Can someone instruct an investigating agency to fabricate a case? Rather than directing the investigating agency to conduct a fair investigation and gather evidence that incriminates the real perpetrators, @MamataOfficial is pronouncing & dictating who are at fault. (sic)”.
‘Mamata govt fabricating case’: BJP
The BJP on Thursday slammed the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) government in West Bengal for allegedly “fabricating a case” over the Birbhum killings.
The statement came after the police arrested TMC’s Rampurhat block president Anarul Hossain in connection with the case at the instruction of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.s
New Delhi (TIP)-The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in its supplementary chargesheet in the Rs 3,600-crore AgustaWestland scam has named former Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) and Defence Secretary Shashi Kant Sharma and four retired Indian Air Force officers, officials in the agency said. The officials said the chargesheet was filed in a special CBI court here after getting the nod from the government to prosecute Sharma, who served as the Defence Secretary between 2011 and 2013 before being appointed the CAG.
The CBI has also named the then Air Vice Marshal Jasbir Singh Panesar (now retired), deputy chief test pilot SA Kunte, the then Wing Commander Thomas Mathew and Group Captain N Santosh. Kunte and Santosh retired as Air Commodore.
It is to be noted here that the case pertains to the alleged bribery to swing a deal to procure 12 VVIP helicopters from AgustaWestland, which was ineligible as its helicopters did not meet the 6,000-metre operational ceiling parameter set by the IAF. The need for new helicopters to ferry VVIPs — the President, Prime Minister, Vice-President and Defence Minister — was felt in 1999 when a proposal was moved to find an alternative to the IAF’s Soviet-era Mi8s.
The CBI, in its first chargesheet filed in in September 2017, had accused then IAF Chief SP Tyagi of recommending reduction in the operational ceiling of the helicopters from 6,000 metres to 4,500 metres, which brought AgustaWestland into the race.
New Delhi (TIP)-Anand Subramanian, former group operating officer at the NSE, was arrested by the CBI late on Thursday, Feb 24, night days after he was questioned about his role at the country’s largest stock exchange. The central probe agency had also put out notices against Subramanian amid probe over irregularities at the NSE (National Stock Exchange).
The emails exchanged between the NSE’s former CEO Chitra Ramkrishna with a ‘yogi’ living in the Himalayas have gained wide attention in the midst of the investigation. Ramakrishna was questioned for 12 hours by the CBI last week in the ‘tick-by-tick’ manipulation case – that pertains to the unfair dissemination of information from the servers of the exchange to those of the stock brokers.
Earlier this month, Market regulator Sebi (Securities and Exchange Board of India) had slapped a fine of ?3 crore on Ramkrishna for exchanging confidential information over emails with this ‘yogi’, an unknown individual. Several key decisions that she took as the NSE head between 2014 and 2016, a February 11 SEBI order revealed, were influenced by her interactions with this unknown individual. A probe by the NSE later revealed that the email id in question was operated by Subramanian. He too was slapped with a fine of Rs 2 crore. Ramakrishna’s predecessor Ravi Narayan, the NSE’s former MD and CEO, was also asked to pay a Rs 2 crore fine.
The CBI has constituted four teams, each having seven members and headed by a joint director, to probe cases of post-poll violence in West Bengal.
Officials in the agency said the probe by individual teams would be monitored by CBI’s Additional Director Ajay Bhatnagar. The members of each team would include a deputy inspector general and three superintendents of police (SPs) from across the country.
Meanwhile, the CBI has written to the West Bengal Director General (DG) of Police to provide details of all cases of murder, attempt to murder and rape reported during the post-poll violence.
The agency has sought details of such cases from the DG in line with a Calcutta High Court order that directed the CBI to take over cases of murder, rape and crime against women.
The CBI’s four teams would be headed by joint directors Ramnish, Anurag, Vineet Vinayak and Sampat Meena.
The High Court on Thursday, Aug ust 19, ordered a CBI inquiry into alleged cases of murder, rape and crime against women during the post-poll violence.
A five-judge Bench, while pronouncing a unanimous verdict on a batch of PILs seeking an independent probe into the incidents of post-poll violence, also ordered the formation of an SIT.
New Delhi (TIP): Making matters worse for fugitive economic offender, Mehul Choksi, India has filed an affidavit proving the businessman’s citizenship in the Dominica High Court.
The Indian investigation team consisting of ED and CBI have prepared the affidavit, which was filed by Ministry of External Affairs’ official on behalf of Union of India.
Apart from stating that Choksi is an Indian citizen, the affidavit says that he is wanted in Rs 13,000 crore bank scam for which the investigating teams want to take him back to India.
“Indian agencies are investigating him. His entry to Antigua should be considered illegal,” said sources noted the affidavit.
Indian investigating teams under CBI SP Sharda Raut have already reached Dominica.
Top Indian government sources have revealed that the Centre has taken help of ex-solicitor general Harish Salve in preparing the final draft of the affidavit. “He has given his services free of cost for the country,” revealed sources.
Top officials in the Intelligence Bureau said that Choksi is paying huge money to lawyers to handle his case. “He has hired lawyers from Dominica, India and UK to handle the case. Money he is using is same he looted from Indian banks. His wife is doing PR on his behalf. She is giving wrong direction to the case that he is not an Indian citizen,” said sources.
They further asserted that Choksi is very much an Indian citizen and needs to be arrested for the scam he has committed and the case is filed in India.
“Indian Investigation teams are in Dominica and he should surrender himself and join the investigation,” they said. “My husband is not an Indian citizen, he must be returned to his family, and to his home in Antigua and Barbuda. My husband has categorically said in the Indian courts that he is available to be interviewed for Indian agencies, But if you don’t want to interview him. How will you ever investigate this case.” said Choksi’s wife, Priti.
Purvi was arraigned as an accused in the case, where multiple chargesheets have been filed by the ED and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)
NEW DELHI (TIP): A special PMLA court on Thursday, April 1, kept in abeyance the warrant issued against the sister and brother-in-law of fugitive diamond merchant Nirav Modi till further orders.
Modi’s sister Purvi and her husband Maiank Mehta had “turned approvers” in the USD 2 billion PNB fraud case, in which Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi are the prime accused.
The couple had approached the court in February for cancellation of non-bailable warrants (NBWs) issued against them, on the grounds that they had turned approvers in the case.
Modi, who is currently lodged in a UK prison, Choksi and others are being probed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the Punjab National Bank (PNB) money laundering case since 2018.
Purvi (47) is a Belgian national, while her husband is a British citizen, and the couple, who are stated to be based abroad, have never joined the probe in the case.
Purvi was arraigned as an accused in the case, where multiple chargesheets have been filed by the ED and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
(Source: PTI)
Signup to our Newsletter!
Don’t miss out on all the happenings around the world
